Crystallography: Miller Indices

Miller Indices are a symbolic representation for the orientation of a crystal face.

The method by which indices are determined is best shown by example. There are three axes in
crystallographic systems (*except the hexagonal system which adopts a convention with four
axes), and Miller indices are represented by a set of 3 (4 for hexagonal) integer numbers.

The first example of the (111) plane:

If you want to describe the orientation of a crystal face or a plane of atoms within a crystal
lattice, then there are series of steps that will lead you to its notation using Miller indices.

1. The first thing that must be ascertained are the fractional intercepts that the plane/face makes
with the crystallographic axes. In other words, how far along the unit cell lengths does the plane
intersect the axis. In the figure above, the plane intercepts each axis at exact one unit length.

2. Step two involves taking the reciprocal of the fractional intercept of each unit length for each
axis. In the figure above, the values are all 1/1.
3. Finally the fractions are cleared (i.e., make 1 as the common denominator).

4. These integer numbers are then enclosed in parentheses. The Miller index designates that
plane within the lattice. Since the unit cell repeats in space, the notation actually represents a
family of planes, all with the same orientation. In the figure above, the Miller index for the plane
is (111)

Example of the (101) plane:

In this case the plane intercepts the a axis at one unit length and also the c axis at one unit
length. The plane however, never intersects the b axis. In other words, it can be said that the
intercept to the b axis is infinity. The intercepts are then designated as 1,infinity,1. The
reciprocals are then 1/2, 1/infinity, 1/1. Knowing 1/infinity = 0 then the indices become (101).
Example of the (101) plane:
Example of the (102) plane:

Note they use the lower plane

Example of the (-102) plane:

Example of the (201) compared to the (102) plane:
Different parentheses and brackets for crystallographic indices

(hkl) Parentheses designate a crystal face or a family of planes throughout a crystal lattice.

[hkl] Square brackets designate a direction in the lattice from the origin to a point. Used to
collectively include all the faces of a crystals whose intersects (i.e., edges) are parallel each
other. These are referred to as crystallographic zones and they represent a direction in the crystal
lattice.

In the picture below, the six prism forms have edges that are named for the axis they are all
parallel to, the c-axis, and so their zone is called [001]

{hkl} This style of definite brackets designates a set of face planes that are equivalent by the
symmetry of the crystal. The set of face planes results in the crystal form. {100} in the isometric
class includes (100), (010), (001), (-100), (0-10) and (00-1), while for the triclinic {100} only the
(100) is included.

d-spacing is defined as the distance between adjacent planes. When X-rays diffract due to
interference amongst a family of similar atomic planes, then each diffraction plane may be
reference by its index dhkl